On March 26, FPC hosted the event, “Tea Party and Speak Easy,” in the Student Center.

The event included a poetry reading by student Sandra Saad and a performance by Asia Project, a spoken-word group.

Nicholas Fulchini, a member of FPC, viewed the event as a fun addition to FDU.

“It’s basically FPC’s campus theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ So they went along with the theme of a tea party,” said Fulchini.
He also commented on Asia Project’s speak easy, noting that it is a traveling group.

Students stayed in the Student Center for the duration of the performance. Chairs were set up in a cozy and comfortable setting for students to sit and sip on their tea and cappuccino.

Saad, a senior, started the show by reading a piece of poetry.

The audience was wide-eyed as Saad’s hand movements and tone of voice silenced them.

Students in the audience even held up their camera phones to record her speech, which was followed by the performance by the Asia Project.

The Asia Project is composed of a traveling poet, accompanied by his brother-in-law, who plays the acoustic guitar.
The group has been featured on HBO and Def Poetry.

Last year, the Asia Project went on a massive college tour that included more than 180 colleges.
Katie Ford, the president of FPC, was responsible for bringing the group to campus.

The group seemed to enjoy the intimate crowd, as well as the “Alice in Wonderland” theme.
They also had the crowd laughing due to candid jokes about sex and New Jersey.

The Asia Project opened up with the idea of breathing – manipulating it throughout the body to get through days and events.

The fact is that breathing is all we can do. The world is stressful, so just breathe. “When the dust settles, all we can do is breathe.”
This poem was written in honor of an old friend of the poet who battled cancer for five years.

The poem also meant a lot to the poet because he had been diagnosed with cancer, though he has been cancer-free for six years.

Being diagnosed with the illness made him realize the beauty of life, so he quit his job and decided to follow his passion of writing poetry.

The group went on to talk about beauty, the kind of beauty that people no longer see within themselves.
They ended it with the line, “You will always be beautiful to me.”

Ashley Markovic, who attended the event, enjoyed the true emotion that the poet conveyed.

“It was really good. I loved how raw it was and the way he included himself in it,” Markovic said.
They group also spoke about love.

The poet read what he wrote to his wife, Jessica.

He started it from the moment they made their relationship official to the day before the wedding.
“Love her with nothing less than everything,” he said.

The group ended the event with this last line: “Nobody is better at being you, than you.”